Monday, October 29, 2007

No Ramesh, the religious right isn't dead

by shamanic

But the GOP's Christian power brokers are certainly being exposed for the pests they've always been. (And Barack Obama is currently committing political suicide by trying to bridge the unbridgeable chasm in South Carolina.)

People are concerned with a lot more than abortion and gay marriage. The religious right isn't dead, but the things that Christian conservatives obsess about will have to expand if they're going to remain relevant. There's a war on (I'm pretty sure Ramesh knows this), the global climate is changing, and an awful lot of Americans lack access to basic health care. Just to name a few.

All of these are areas where communities of faith should be important voices, and all of these are areas where elements within the religious right have closed down the discussion. To their detriment. And to the detriment of their movement.

And in a bizarre example of evolution at work, Ramesh is exactly right when he says, "Each time, of course, religious conservatives came roaring back." And they will again, with an expanded agenda that people might actually care about.